So in Aotearoa you wouldn't call a transistor a valve. Is that what you're saying?

Yep! Thats what I'm saying. As a youngster we had both a valve and transistor radios. Dad was an amateur radio enthusiast. He had an old army surplus unit about the size of a beer crate but twice as heavy. Fascinating machine!

Incidentally, it seems the electronic use of the term valve] sometimes takes the adjective thermionic. If there was no counterpart for the old-fashioned plumbing valve this would seem to be a case of the reverse of a retronym.

....though "drive" is short for "driveway," used to mean a short paved road beside a dwelling, on which one is likely to park his car. Otherwise Laverne, who is much smarter than I, agrees we've never heard it used to mean a garage, etc

True, I was stretching it a bit. Driveway is where you park your car beside the house. A drive is usually a fancy version of road, usually a scenic one as in "It's the second driveway on the right off Cholmondley Drive."

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